Trademarking your company is essential to help customers and clients identify your services and goods. The requirement for trademark name filing is that your trademark is only for commerce purposes. Additionally, the label should not be the same or similar to another brand or company’s trademark. Once these requirements are met, you can approach either an attorney or trademark services for assistance. Here are a few more tips to remember while trademarking your company.
Ensure your trademark is unique
Conduct a thorough and complete trademark due diligence to ensure that your trademark is similar to that of another organization or brand, also known as trademark clearance research. This essential to stay out of legal troubles and avoid the expenses of rebranding in the future. Again, this type of research can help you to determine whether you can get exclusive rights on your brand.
Pick a trademark that can be protected
When it comes to trademarking your company or brand, it is advisable to pick something as fanciful as you can. Not all names and words can be protected as a trademark. For instance, “money holder” is a generic name for wallets or descriptive terms such as “the bag shop.” Such names are difficult to be protected using a trademark. Whereas if you pick a made-up word for your brand, such as Texaco®, it can be easily protected. Moreover, fanciful names are hard to replicate by others seeking to trademark their brand or company.
Register as early as possible
Trademarking your company name with the USPTO or The United States Patent and Trademark Office will give your exclusive rights. You own the trademark registration from the date you have filed your application. The earlier you file your trademark register, the easier it will be to prevent competitors from using a similar trademark. You will hold the rights to your brand from an earlier date. Also, the initial registration will be like a notice to your potential competitors.
Monitor your trademark
Registering your trademark is just the beginning. To completely safeguard your brand or company’s identity, you need to be on a constant lookout for copy-cats. To ensure that your brand identity is not diluted, you need to regularly monitor your trademark so that another company or brand does not use it; otherwise, you may lose the exclusive rights to your label. If you are planning to expand overseas, make sure to protect your trademark under foreign laws.
We often stumble across the word “bail” in news or our favorite courtroom dramas. But what does this word actually mean?
In simple terms, bail is an amount that a defendant has to deposit to be released from jail. This money is imposed to ensure that the defendant will return to the court for further proceedings. The bail amount differs across cases and is decided by the judge. The money is returned to the defendant after the case is over.
There are two types of bails, namely, cash and bonds. As the name suggests, cash bails are where one needs to pay the bail amount in cash. At times, these can be comparatively heavy on the wallet than bonds, as they have to be paid entirely in cash. On the other hand, bail bonds or surety bonds are contractual agreements where the bail amount is funded through a third-party or bondsmen as the bail amount charged is expensive, generally, for severe crimes.
How to do bail bonds work?
Like mentioned before, when the bail involves a big figure, defendants can approach a third-party or a bondsman to help them. Such businesses will charge 10% of the bail amount as a fee while they cover the remaining balance amount. The bail bondsmen draft an agreement to make sure that the defendant turns up in the court. In this contract, the bail bondsmen require the defendant to use a collateral in exchange of bail.
Every bail bond agency is different, therefore, what would deem as a collateral will vary accordingly. Typically, an asset of significant value is accepted as a surety. The following are some examples of what can be used as a collateral:
Both, the court and the bail bond agency, establish some conditions for the defendant’s release. The first being that the defendant has to appear in the court for future trials and hearings. Likewise, the defendant isn’t permitted to break any laws before the final verdict. If any of these terms are violated then an arrest warrant will be issued.
The bail bond agency, on the other hand, will ask the defendant to surrender their collateral temporarily. If the defendant doesn’t show up for court proceedings, the agency will have all the rights to track them down. Moreover, if the defendant is nowhere to be found in the next six months, then they will be liable to pay the entire bail amount.
It can be a difficult process for one to get themselves out of custody. The bail system acts as a savior and helps one to get their loved ones out of custody fast. There are a variety of bonds that can secure one’s release from jail. Below are the different types of bail bonds that everyone must know about to help get custody fast.
Cash bond
As the name suggests, cash bonds are cash payments that allow one to get out of jail. In most instances, only cash is accepted by the corrections department. However, in some cases, cashier’s checks or credit cards can also be used to cover cash bails. Most people don’t tend to have large sums of money readily available to give to the correction department as in some cases thousands of dollars in cash are needed to cover bail fast. In such cases, one may have to seek the advice of a bail bondsman for the help they need.
Property bond
Property bonds may not be accepted in all states. However, in states like California, they are used occasionally. Different types of properties can be used, but real estate happens to be the one that is most commonly used. These bonds tend to be quite useful, especially, when one does not have cash available in hand to secure bail. The only drawback of property bond is that it takes time to obtain the same. One can be released from jail within a couple hours with the help of cash bonds. Whereas a property bond is handled directly by the court, there is an assessment of property value that is needed along with court hearing in order to receive the confirmation of the bond agreement. Hence, the whole process takes a span of a few weeks.
Federal bail bond
If one has been jailed under a federal crime, to secure the release, a federal bail bond is needed. Both cash, as well as property, can be used to obtaining federal bonds and they don’t require a bail bondsman. Similar to the property bonds, federal bail bonds are handled by the court directly.